Looking for Wagner recommendations

I agree that you are diving into the deep end. There are people that spend their whole lives on a quest for the perfect Ring cycle alone.

Buy one of the many opera excerpts discs (silver or vinyl).

then if you decide you love it,go for Tristan and Isolde,then The Flying Dutchman before venturing into the land of the Ring.

Personally I love this music, but Der Walkure puts me right out. All that incestuous swooning in the cave for what seems like hours with no action at all.
Das Rhinegold is the most approachable and the shortest at apporx 4 hours. The others are all 5 hours long. Goetterdamering is the ultimate in Wagnerian moments. After all, it is the twilight of the Gods.

e

'Personally I love this music, but Der Walkure puts me right out. All that incestuous swooning in the cave for what seems like hours with no action at all.'

are you expecting some X-rated behavior?

Q.Whats the definition of a man's foreplay?

A.Fancy a sh*g?!!!
(or two hours of begging).

LOL! Gawbless, god bless you.

No I have no expectations of Wagnerian porn.As I said, Der Walkure is just plain too long and boring.Of course the famous "Ride of the Walkure" is what everyone thinks of when they think of Wagner.Perhaps this is what I don't like.It has become gosh.
To me the immolation scene in Goetterdamering is so incredible that the "Ride" pales by comparison.

e

Wagner is one of the great anti-Semites in musical history. It is very hard to separate the evil man from the evil men and women who worshipped his music.

I believe that one must separate the artist from the man. Wagner was one of the greatest musical geniuses in history, the definitive iconoclast. It can be argued that he affected music more than any other artist has affected his art. For many decades afterwards, all composers had to deal with his concepts. Music exploded in many different directions after him - it was never the same again. He is also, at least was as of the late 1980's, still the third most written about figure in the western world. Many Jews championed and still champion his music. It is even played again in Israel now. To say that it is only "evil men and women who worship his music" is absurd.